For something to be called a success, it must have results that meet or exceed the pre-established criteria. If you list your criteria, and then show us the pix from a shoot, we could probably help you determine whether or not the shoot was successful. Whatever we on the forums might tell you about how many keepers you should have will not really help you. 1) You need to state your own criteria, and not give too much importance to anyone else's, and 2) Anything we say will just be opinion anyhow.

I don't shoot a ton of staged people photography, but when I do, the number of photos I hope to get will vary greatly depending on, well.......what I want to get. This can range from one to many. However, if you at least make every shot a likely "keeper," then all that is left is finding the one with the best of the minute variations that occur between shots. (Wind blows and then stops, expressions change, etc.) In other words, don't even take the picture if you don't think it has a chance to be a "keeper," and damned near all of them are "keepers." All you have to do is pick the one with the details that you like best for your intended purpose.

I just talked to my ex girlfriend yesterday. She is a big muckity-muck photo editor for the AP with about 15 years combined experience between Allsport, Getty, and AP. I was talking about shooting journalistic pix for weddings, and how I keep about 50% of my pix. She said that in the film days for wire services, 1 or 2 pix that were worth being transmitted out of a roll of 36 was considered good solid work in a news situation. Now, with digital, she says over 90% gets trashed. However, this is in news/sports situations, in which each picture only happens once. If you are doing a staged shoot, I think you should have very little waste that is not caused by technical flaws. You have all the control in the world to get timing and composition right, so everything should be close to right on in those regards, IMHO.

Last edited by 2F/2F; 12-13-2010 at 07:04 PM. Click to view previous post history.

2F/2F

"Truth and love are my law and worship. Form and conscience are my manifestation and guide. Nature and peace are my shelter and companions. Order is my attitude. Beauty and perfection are my attack."

I've done a fair amount of model stuff when I was building my portfolio.
It helps you get used to working "cold" with a variety of people/subjects.
Take a look at the People section of my website http://www.brucemuir.com

I don't do alot of that type work anymore because there's not much money in it. I shot almost all the flikr work on a 20D when that camera was newish although I would shoot with a hasselblad alongside it sometimes. I would also shoot my FM2 as it was easier for me for that type work.

It's a great learning tool because outdoors at the worst part of the day it makes you really see light and how to manipulate it.
I was real green back then.

I do offer film packages for my portrait clients and try to push that but it takes a certain client that can see what WE all obviously see in a silver based workflow.

what about landscapes?

sorry to butt in, but for landscapes, especially the kind near sunrise,sunset,blue hour and night shots, what are your keepers? i shoot c41 negs, and find that maybe 20% are usable technically...ie acceptable exposure and sharpness. is this bad? i just started on film again recently and was wondering what the national geographic type pros would get for their keeper ratios....

If you are happy and the model is happy (and if it's a paid shoot, the client is happy), then the number of "keepers" is irrelevant.
Forget quantity; it's not a numbers game. Shoot for quality. One great shot is better than 100 good ones.